Trump Admin Sabotages Obamacare by Drastically Shortening Registration Period

image from Business Insider

Guest post by Rachel Ginsburg

There’s been a whole lot of coverage about both the Republican party’s and the Trump administration’s brazen efforts to sabotage Obamacare, and the horrifyingly negative effect that would have on the health of our population. However, short of a few copy and paste campaigns on Facebook, I’ve seen very little calling attention to the drastic decrease in the duration of the open enrollment period for 2018. It’s been cut to just six weeks. Six. Weeks.

I’ve purchased individual health insurance policies on the NY state exchange twice in the last 4 years since it launched. The first time, I was a self-employed married person. At the time, my husband’s employer was willing to cover me, but wasn’t willing to contribute to my premium. I found better, equally priced coverage on the exchange. The second time, I bought the same Blue Cross Blue Shield (Empire Blue) policy as a single, self-employed professional. Interestingly, both premiums were the same – despite 3 years having passed between.

Both times, I would’ve missed the deadline had either been as inhumanely short as the upcoming enrollment period.

In case you don’t have firsthand experience with the benefits of having health insurance, take it from a doctor. The statistics are equally damning. Twenty percent of uninsured adults have gone without the care they need, as opposed to 3% of insured. Imagine how many have gone without the care they didn’t know they needed? Uninsured people are three times more likely to forego prescription medication because the cost is simply too high to bear. These are medications that have already been prescribed by physicians.

It’s abundantly clear that politics has usurped concern for the welfare of the American people. Obamacare WORKS. We had achieved historically low rates of uninsured. (Not anymore though, thanks to the current administration.) It’s in the political interest of the governing members of the Republican party to cripple the program, and they’re not even pretending anymore.

Since Election Day, I’ve been struggling to find ways to take action to resist this administration effectively. I’ve shown up and protested, chanting until hoarse, but remain unconvinced that it has made a real difference.

Healthcare is a horse of a different color.

We have a responsibility to get the word out to every single person currently insured by the ACA and every person who could be.

We have until December 15th. Share loudly and widely. Call your friends and family to make sure they know how and when to enroll. Here’s a list of resources if anyone needs assistance:

https://www.healthcare.gov/apply-and-enroll/get-ready-to-apply/

https://localhelp.healthcare.gov/#/

https://www.healthcare.gov/apply-and-enroll/get-help-applying/

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/health/health-insurance-guide/

https://connector.getcoveredamerica.org/en-us/widget/?original=/connector/